Unusual Breakage

[Judi]

Hi, I bake dog treats for a small, local barkery. I've been experiencing a lot of breakage with our cookies when we started using a sheeter. I am making sure the scrap dough is well incorporated prior to the second rolling. Assuming it was a gluten issue, I've gone to great lengths to make sure the dough is well rested before rolling and cutting. The cookies all seem fine when I remove them from the oven but after they sit for a couple of days (we allow them to naturally dry for 72 hours), this starts to happen. A little recipe info: The photo shows 3 different recipes, all using eggs as the fat. We also offer a shortbread using lard, we are experiencing the same issues with that recipe. We don't use baking soda or baking powder, we would prefer to not use it as we market the treats to be natural. We add sourdough starter to each recipe since it is a natural mold inhibitor. We use 100% human grade ingredients, nothing sits long enough to even come close to aging before we use it (flour is used within two weeks of purchase). I'm completely at my wits end. Any ideas?

Thank you!

Judi

 

[ChesterV]

Would help if you posted the recipe you use.


I've never made pet treats, but I had a friend who did some years ago.
She never had a problem with hers. I posted her recipes below........


Various Pet Treats
Peanut Butter

3 cups of whole wheat flour
1/2 cup of peanut butter
2 tbs of veggie oil
1 cup of water.

Mix water, oil and peanut butter together. Once blended, add flour - 1 cup at a time. Mix, roll out and cut into desired shape and bake.

Chicken

2 cups of whole wheat flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
6 tbs of veggie oil
2/3 cup of chicken stock.

Mix all ingredients, roll out, cut out, and bake.

Bacon

Follow recipe above but add desired amount of bacon bits (real bacon)

Beef

Same recipe as chicken but substitute beef stock instead of chicken stock

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Doggie treats



Veggie Bones
Ingredients:

2 3/4 C. Flour
2 Tbls. Bran
2 Tsp. Baking Powder
3 Tsp. Minced Fresh Parsley (good for doggie breath)
1/4 C. Shredded Carrots
1/4 C. Shredded Cheese (your choice--mozzarella, cheddar)
2 Tbls. Olive Oil
1/2 Tsp. Flaxseed (optional)
1/2 C. Water

Directions:
Preheat oven 350 degrees. Lightly grease a cookie sheet. Mix together parsley, carrots, cheese and oil. Combine the dry ingredients separately from the veggie mixture. Slowly add 1/2 c. water and mix well. Dough should be moist but not wet. Knead for a minute.

Roll out dough to 1/4" thickness. Using cookie cutters of your choice, cut out shapes and place on baking sheet.

Bake 20-30 minutes until biscuits have browned and hardened slightly. They will continue to harden as they cool. Store in an airtight container once throughly cooled.

Makes 2 to 3 dozen

 

[ChesterV]

For your issue, I would guess that there is either not enough water, oil, or egg in them, which makes them drier than they are supposed to be, so they end up being more fragile.

If you don't want to change the recipe, then I would place the treats on a mesh rack to cool, and them lay another mesh rack on top, so they hopefully wont separate while cooling. You could also place them on a cookie sheet and top them with another cookie sheet, but I don't know how much liquid you use in these, and if they get sweaty while cooling, they will get soggy.


Hope that helps

 

[Judi]

Thank you for your response.

We don't stack the trays when cooling but we do bake with a tray on top.

I was wondering about the water levels too. I add less water than the recipe calls for, simply because to add as much as stated would result in a very sticky (impossible to work with) dough. I generally only add enough to hold the dough together and not be sticky. I will try increasing the water and maybe throw another egg in there.

Thanks again!

 

[ChesterV]

Thank you for your response.

We don't stack the trays when cooling but we do bake with a tray on top.

I was wondering about the water levels too. I add less water than the recipe calls for, simply because to add as much as stated would result in a very sticky (impossible to work with) dough. I generally only add enough to hold the dough together and not be sticky. I will try increasing the water and maybe throw another egg in there.

Thanks again!

If that doesn't help, you might try getting a clean spray bottle of water and spritzing them right before they go in the oven. Another "bakers secret" for baking "dry" cookies and breads so they don't crack or crumble after cooling off.

 

[Becky]

Good advice from @ChesterV re water

They look more like a pastry than a biscuit, so if they are still breaking after adding more water then maybe break the cardinal rule of baking and try overworking the gluten?! It would make them tough, but that could be a good thing here.